fanw ([info]fanw) wrote,
@ 2008-06-13 10:32:00
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Seriously? - Red Sox Mania
So, one of the things I never managed to do in Boston was to see the Red Sox at Fenway Park. I now have added incentive since a friend of mine is singing the National Anthem. But she couldn't sing it on any normal night, no, she happened to draw the first game against the Cardinals, which is apparently the team against which the Red Sox broke the 86-yr World Series curse. Cue the sound of cashiers going "Ka-Ching!"

This is baseball, the all-American sport, the game you bring your eight year old son to and buy him a hotdog. But how in the world can people afford it? Standing room only seats cost from $40 to $389, where you huddle behind the grandstands and peer through. If you want an actually seat for your four hour game, it'll cost you at least $60, but bring your binoculars since you'll be in the upmost bleachers. Tickets go all the way up to $2900 (seriously!!?) for which I hope you at least get close enough to be splashed with tobacco spittle. Seriously folks. It's a game. And I don't think it's all people with Dolce & Gabbana handbags out there. I think we've somehow convinced working americans that it's right and proper to spend $150 a seat to watch baseball, just like we've convinced them half an annual salary is the "appropriate" price of a wedding. Or maybe it's not a family thing anymore. Maybe it's all 20- and 30- something bachelors with too much money and not enough beer?

I may still wander down to Fenway to wait for three hours on game day and pick up the few same-day tix they release to the plebes. I want the experience, but folks, this ain't the Met. Please be reasonable!



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[info]ksushis
2008-06-13 03:26 pm UTC (link)
The Met is cheaper (I think :))... We've just been to NYC and went to the Met to see Don Quixote - the tickets were $99 for seats in the middle on the 2nd row in the Grand Tier where we could see everything perfectly....
Btw, basketball is not better than baseball this way. One of the problems is that the tickets for the playoffs game are at least 3 times more than the nominal price...

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[info]smacaski
2008-06-13 03:43 pm UTC (link)
Well, different people have different interests. Some people are willing to pay $90 for cheap seats to listen to Placido, some are willing to pay the same to see Big Papi. :)

The more expensive seats at Fenway do typically get taken by the high-roller businessman crowd, many of whom are bandwagoners and don't know the first thing about baseball (grr). In fact, I've had to go online and buy tickets for my boss so that he could take out some ninny clients who didn't even pay attention to the game (double grr).

But Fenway is inordinately expensive, just like many things about Boston, and it is a common grumble about working-class folks who want to take their kids to the game. There are still plenty of families taking their kids, and young adults going to the games, but this it's a once-a-year, big day thing, not something they can repeat 10 times over the course of the season. Believe me, I know--I was too broke last winter to try to order Sox tickets online when they went on sale in December. If I'd known you earlier and about your desire to see a Sox game, though, I might have braved it. :)

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[info]ukelele
2008-06-13 04:09 pm UTC (link)
One of the things I've noticed over the last few years is that there's way, way more money kicking around in greater Boston than one would expect.

(But you can get cheaper seats for some of the other games, and some of those people are there on tickets they scored from friends or mailing lists or something, and some of them are doing their once-a-year family outing for which they've specially budgeted.)

(But yes, Fenway has the most expensive seats in baseball.)

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[info]ukelele
2008-06-13 04:09 pm UTC (link)
(You can, however, watch baseball extremely affordably in Providence or Lowell. And it's even the Red Sox. Sort of.)

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[info]fanw
2008-06-13 04:53 pm UTC (link)
Yeah, I already know I can watch the Red Sox in Cleveland for $8. Thing is, the current Red Sox team is nothing special. It's the stadium itself which is historic. I'm still deciding whether it's enough to make me wanna drop $60 (probably not) or miss my friend and go on another day for $30.

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[info]ukelele
2008-06-13 05:15 pm UTC (link)
Nothing special! With Manny hitting his 500th homer, and Ortiz (however wounded), and Papelbon, and Ellsbury stealing everything that isn't nailed down, two championships in the last few years, top of the division and 3rd-best record in all of baseball? "Nothing special". Harrumph.

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[info]smacaski
2008-06-13 05:22 pm UTC (link)
Not to mention cancer-survivor-cum-rising-star-pitcher Jon Lester, the ever-dependable Captain 'Tek, the not-so-Greek god of walks Youkilis, a resurgent J.D. Drew...

Yeah, this could go on for a while. /loves my boys

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[info]ukelele
2008-06-13 06:13 pm UTC (link)
I knew I was missing some people! ("Not-so-Greek god of walks." lol.)

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[info]smacaski
2008-06-13 06:24 pm UTC (link)
Greek, Romanian Jew... po-tay-to, po-tah-to.

And we can't ever forget Mike Lowell (or, as it's pronounced with a proper Boston accent, "Myglowl").

Running out of Sox icons... must make more...

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[info]fanw
2008-06-13 05:27 pm UTC (link)
:D Okay, so maybe they are the Pavarotti's of baseball! I wouldn't know! This reminds me of when I used to watch U of Michigan football games for the half-time show my sister was in. I guess I'm not supposed to go to a game for the music! ;)

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[info]fanw
2008-06-13 05:28 pm UTC (link)
(Please excuse the apostrophe. I never know what to do in that case since Pavarottis or Pavarotties just seems wrong!)

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[info]medyani
2008-06-13 04:13 pm UTC (link)
You really don't want to feed your kid that hot dog either. Fenway Park food stands flunk inspections

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[info]fanw
2008-06-13 04:55 pm UTC (link)
Ah yes, if there aren't a few rodent droppings, then how are you going to get that baseball flavor?

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[info]mindstalk
2008-06-13 07:54 pm UTC (link)
Sports is the new religion! Complete with cathedrals! Well, cathedral-building prices. Actual spiffy construction is some dekamillionaire's mansion.

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[info]zmook
2008-06-13 08:50 pm UTC (link)
As it happens, I have yet to see a game in Fenway, too. Pretty much for the same reasons. If you find a plausible way to get a ticket (for whatever game) and want company, let me know. I just can't imagine paying more than $50 to see a baseball game, and I'm definitely not up for standing room. :-/

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[info]fanw
2008-06-13 09:06 pm UTC (link)
Sadly there's not a single seat for that game sold for less than $60. I'll tell you if a miracle happens though.

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Tier 2
[info]fdmts
2008-06-13 09:01 pm UTC (link)
If you want the Americana experience you seek, go to a second tier team, like the Providence suggested above. $5 tickets, coolers, and whole families whooping it up.

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Re: Tier 2
[info]fanw
2008-06-13 09:05 pm UTC (link)
I suppose I just didn't realize baseball had bling these days. Once again, I've seen baseball in the past. I've seen the Cubs at Wrigley Field. I've seen the Braves. What I'm looking for now is not the team, but Fenway itself, so I'm kinda stuck. Maybe I'll tell my friend I just can't make her night and go another night when they're slightly less unreasonably priced.

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